New Kings coach Mike Malone says of his offense what every coach says about their offense in the off-season — he wants to run. He wants to defend and be up tempo in transition. That may be true, but it’s pretty much like everyone running for president in the last 30 years saying they want to end politics as usual in Washington — it’s a nice sentiment that doesn’t really lead to much in action.

I’ve talked about DeMarcus a lot, but he’s so talented. He’s a big who can play away from the basket. But I’m going to ask him to play inside as well this year, be a guy we can run our offense through at times, because he can be such a good passer. The challenge for him is to cut down on those three turnovers a game. The luxury we had last year at Golden State, we had two bigs (David Lee and Andrew Bogut) who were not only good passers but willing passers. My hope is we get to that at some point.

Likely by the time the season starts, or at least before the Kings play their second game, Cousins is going to get a massive extension to his rookie deal. It will be max or close to it as the Kings bet their future on him. How he responds to that — does he show up feeling he needs to show he is worth the money? — will go a long way to saying what kind turnaround Malone will have with the Kings. Cousins is the centerpiece.

Cousins can pass, and if he is a willing and improved passer he can be a guy you run an offense through in the half court. He certainly has the physical tools. The questions are just is he mentally ready and can Malone get him there?

This kids is still immature… Once he has his huge contract, guaranteed millions and millions… well he’s gonna do things his own way…

It’s one thing to give an immature guy some chances, work with him etc… because you hope to reap the rewards when he grows up…

However, by paying him the large money while he’s still immature, the leverage is gone and he will be free to continue being himself as he’ll think “hey, I made it to the league this way and now I’ve got a max or a near max deal by being this way so I’m going to remain the same since it’s worked so far…”